Chapel's swifts, part 1: Why do they matter?

We've been so busy over the last two weeks, raising awareness of the plight of swifts at Chapel Milton Viaducts, so we thought we should share a little of why we are so concerned and how we got here. 

Swifts across the UK are in steep decline and need help from everyone - from individuals to organisations - to protect and enhance their nesting opportunities. Swifts matter everywhere, but in this first post, we want to explain exactly why the swifts of Chapel‑en‑le‑Frith matter to us, before turning, in Part 2, to what’s happening now and what we’re doing about it.

Photo credit: Deborah Pitman

The magnificent Chapel Milton Viaducts on the edge of Chapel-en-le-Frith are home to a swift population that has built up over 160 years since the Western Viaduct was opened in 1867. These fabulous Grade II listed structures have several little crevices where these tiny birds nest and breed. These nest sites have been threatened by Network Rail's renovation of the Viaducts, which has led to some of those crevices being mortared up.

We're a little town with a big past

Chapel-en-le-Frith celebrated its 800th birthday last year. Like many Derbyshire towns and villages, there are families here that have been present for generations - local people will tell you as much, but any bit of digging into local history will soon highlight the same surnames that come up time and again in census data, registers of births and deaths, in gazetteers, and on gravestones. The Bagshaws and Friths, the Carringtons and the Lomases, the Garlicks and the Bradshaws... and so many more. Human family lineages, deeply rooted in geography.

Our ancestors - right back to our founding in 1225 - will have anticipated and enjoyed the arrival of swifts in May every year. And because the swifts have an extraordinary bond with the area they were born, the swifts we saw here in 2025 were the direct descendants of the same local breeding lines that were visiting in 1225.

Our shared history with swifts

A swift born in a crack in a Chapel-en-le-Frith eaves or wall will travel to Africa and back, thousands of miles, only to navigate back to Chapel to breed. And once they have found a mate, and a breeding site of their own near the rest of their family, they both come back every single year to the same exact place to breed.

Swifts will, of course, have been summer residents here for centuries before 1225. But the growth of the village, particularly during the 18th and 19th centuries, must have been a boom time for them: Chapel was a collection of stone barns and houses - a swift paradise. The built environment created by local families (the quarrymen and builders and farmers) is one likely reason the swift lineages thrived here. Humans built for themselves, but in doing so, they also built an ancestral seat for the birds. Swift family lineages, deeply rooted in geography.

We have a legacy to protect for future generations

A local farmer, leaning on a drystone wall in 1726, would have looked up at the same local families of swifts that someone returning home from an evening shop at Morrison's might see and hear above them in 2026. 

When we fight to protect these birds isn't just "swifts" in a general sense; it is a specific, local dynasty of swifts that belongs to Chapel as much as any family in the churchyard. We must do everything we can to protect them so that their descendants and ours can continue to enjoy this wonderful home.

 Coming up: Chapel's swifts, part 2: What's been going on with the Chapel Milton Viaducts?

URGENT - Returning swifts face disaster at Derbyshire viaduct after Network Rail multi -million pound refurbishment

We know how many of you care about Chapel's swift population, so we are all devastated by the news that nests have been blocked on the Chapel Milton viaducts.

We have issued this press release out and urge all our supporters to join us at 11am on Saturday, 11 April at Chapel Milton viaduct (whatthreewords: moment.reader.horseshoe) to draw attention to this impending disaster.

Swifts returning to Derbyshire within days could face disaster at Chapel Milton, where campaigners say nest access points in a railway viaduct have been filled with mortar.

The birds are due back in British skies imminently after their long migration from Africa. But when they reach Chapel Milton in Derbyshire, some may find their nesting places sealed shut. 

Swift Campaigner Deb Pitman said: “Seeing footage of what happens when swifts return to a blocked nest is deeply upsetting. They repeatedly try to access their entry point, sometimes with fatal consequences. It is thought established breeding pairs do not successfully relocate to a new nest site. In effect, when a nest site is lost, they stop breeding.” 

Swifts return to the same nest site year after year, and conservationists warn that the loss of nest sites is one of the major reasons for their steep decline. Swift numbers in the UK have fallen dramatically since the 1990s. 

Jason Adshead, from the Chapel Biodiversity Group, said: “We spent a great deal of time monitoring the work at the viaduct last year and we have evidence showing where the nest sites are. Its information we shared with Network Rail. We sincerely hope they will arrange for the nest holes to be reopened before the birds return in numbers. Swifts are the sight and sound of summer and we are incredibly lucky to have them here.”

Campaigners are calling for urgent action before the birds return.

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A bird releases the butterfly effect

Guest blog by Deborah Pitman

Autumn tones reveal themselves along the thinly wooded edge of Waterswallows Quarry, the wildlife haven just outside Buxton. The cliffs stand starkly majestic in the warm, mizzling air. We scan the water for a rarity.

A rare Arctic visitor...

The High Peak, it turns out, lies on the migratory path of a charming little bird: the Grey Phalarope. Just one paused its journey here at the beginning of October. The Grey Phalarope moves from nesting grounds in the high Arctic to winter warmth in the tropics. With only around 160 seen in the UK each year — most of them coastal — this inland stopover caused a stir.

Jason Adshead and I decided to go and take a look. At just 20cm long, it’s smaller than a blackbird. A beaming man passes us as we approach: “It’s tucked in on the far side.” Sure enough, we soon spot it scooting across the water, absorbed in its own world, almost exactly where he’d said.

Grey phalarope, picture from Ron Knight
CC BY 2.0 licence. via Wikimedia Commons

A birder from Matlock ambles over and smiles: “It’s my first visit since the seventies. I was a student on a field trip. There’s a volcano down there.” I’m used to shrugging off tall tales from strangers on walks — but he was right. Some 300 million years ago, molten basalt swept over the limestone; in the last century, we carved it back out of the earth.

Back to the Grey Phalarope. The Collins Guide to British Birds describes it as “often oblivious to human observers,” spinning on the water and delicately picking invertebrates from the surface. I can only hope it also remained oblivious to the wave of rubbish breaking around the quarry’s edge.

... prompts a marathon litter pick

Autumn’s levels of litter at Waterswallows are nothing compared with summer’s, but still too much. Nature is resurging after years of heavy industry. Wildlife has been coaxed back to the margins through tree planting and meadow creation — projects delivered by volunteers from the neighbouring Nestlé water-bottling plant. Fungi now cluster beneath the young woodland, mushrooms cheek by jowl with the litter that breaks down and disrupts the habitat.

The beautiful phalarope made the butterfly effect real — a single wingbeat inspiring something far larger. Chapel-en-le-Frith’s Biodiversity Group decided to act. This autumn’s clean-up follows the huge efforts of those who cleared the party debris left from summer nights. Around sixty volunteer hours, spread across four weekends, have seen bag after bag hauled from every corner of the site: car tyres, gas bottles, nitrous oxide canisters, plastic, glass, a whirligig washing line — everything, including a kitchen sink.

Deb, Jason and Nic at Waterswallows

Nic Callaghan paddle-boarded the perimeter, towing sack after sack of rubbish back to shore. The satisfaction is written across her beaming face. Making a mark on a natural space does that to you — it becomes a shared experience, a meditative act of rebellion. A quiet declaration that we don’t have to be passive in the face of rubbish when it stands in Mother Nature’s way.

Our paddle board champion litter picker Nic!

"Being part of the solution is a wonderful feeling"

Litter is a complex issue to solve, but being part of the solution is a wonderful feeling. Chapel-en-le-Frith Biodiversity Group carry out regular litter-picks around the parish — and occasionally further afield, when a passing rarity points us toward a problem.

Chapel Biodiversity Group volunteers with some of the litter from Waterswallows

Helping hibernators

Now that we are well and truly into Autumn and Winter will be here before we know it, we've added a page on hibernation which is full of tips for things you can do (and not do!) to support hibernating insects, reptiles and mammals. 

You can find the page on our menu above or just click here.

August 2025 Newsletter

We've just sent out our August 2025 newsletter - and it's a bumper edition! 

Featuring news about swifts, how we helped celebrate Chapel's 800th birthday, and upcoming activities you can get involved in - from water surveying to reporting Himalayan Balsam. 

If you want to receive our news direct to your inbox, sign up for the mailing list in the box on the right hand side of this page. 

Or you can read the web version here.

UPDATE! Bug Hunt and other nature activities POSTPONED

UPDATE! The rain is not letting up this morning ☔ No one wants to paint rocks in the rain ⛈️so we are postponing the nature activities until a little later in the summer. We'll keep all the little treats safe ready for a rescheduled activity day. Keep an eye on this website and on our Facebook group for the new date.

🐛🐜🪲🐞🦗🪳🪰🐛🐜🪲🐞🦗🪳🪰🐛🐜🪲🐞🦗🪳🪰🐛🐜

As part of the 800th Birthday celebrations for Chapel-en-le-Frith, we've organised nature activities for children in the Memorial Park this Sunday 2-4pm. 

There will be.... 

- A bug hunt 🐛🐜🪲🐞🦗🪳🪰

- Rock painting 🎨🖌️

- Tree drawing 🌲🌳🌴

And we have some little treats to take away at the end 😊

Pop by any time, no need to register. 

Under 18s with a parent or guardian please.

See Nature based fun for the children | Facebook